This is the first acceleration program designed to answer the specific needs of young food companies in terms of industrial scaling, business models and market access. Accelerise also addresses the growing consciousness of startups, SMEs and even large food companies to anticipate changes incurred by the growing presence of digital technologies within the food industry and the impact of disruptive innovations. The first 3-month acceleration session of the program will begin in January 2017 and will be based in Paris and Dijon, France.

FoodTech business acceleration – from farm to fork

AcceleRise is the new acceleration program launched by Vitagora. This not for profit, zero equity program will provide support for 15 startups, spin-offs or SMEs over two acceleration session during 2017 (January to April and September to December), followed by a post-acceleration support period of 9 months. The services offered are oriented towards goals of market access and industrialisation support tailored to the specific obstacles encountered by young, innovative companies of the food sector. The program will be carried out by a dedicated team within Vitagora and reinforced by a network of professional mentors from among the 320 members of Vitagora.

Applications for AcceleRise are open to all startups and SMEs from France or abroad from the FoodTech sector, in other words :

• Digital technologies applied to the food industry value chain, ‘from farm to fork’: agriculture, manufacturing, retail and food services, consumer services etc.
• Disruptive innovations in food: new food primary productions (insects, microalgae, plant proteins), innovative processing technologies (fermentation, microencapsulation), smart packaging etc. 

AcceleRise – strengthening the French FoodTech ecosystem

The main objective of AcceleRise is to provide support for the industrialisation and market access of startups and SMEs. By fostering partnerships with other food industry players, AcceleRise also contributes to the innovation of larger companies. “Multinationals are aware of the risk of the “Uberisation” of their industry,” explains Christophe Breuillet, director of AcceleRise. “They are thus on the look out for inventive and agile companies that can help them to evolve their practices in anticipation of disruptions from digital technologies or other areas of innovation.”

AcceleRise is also the first food business acceleration program in Europe supported by a cluster organisation. The young companies taking part can thus take advantage of a rapid integration into the ecosystem of Vitagora network (320  members from throughout France and abroad) as well as the clusters 10 years of experience in developing R&D projects. The program has also acquired partners (food businesses, professional mentors and investors) as well as a number of partner co-working locales in France and abroad (Dijon, Paris, Lyon, Bordeau, Marseille, Avignon, London, New York etc.).

Press contact: Marthe Jewell, 06 60 65 87 16, marthe.jewell@vitagora.com